1 Rouble

The State Bank of the Russian Empire began issuing credit notes (kreditnye bilety) under a framework established by the 1860 banking reform, but the 1882–1886 series represented a tightening of that system — Finance Minister Bunge was pushing toward the eventual gold-standard stabilization that Witte would complete in 1897. Low denominations like this one circulated hard and wore out fast; the 1-rouble note was workday money, passed through markets and taverns rather than bank counters.

Surviving examples in any respectable condition are genuinely uncommon for this reason. The series was printed by the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers (EZGB) in St. Petersburg, the state security printer that handled virtually all Imperial Russian paper issues from the 1850s onward.